


Back To You

by Lemon_Boy_Kaden



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Afterlife, Afterlife AU, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Divergence, Everybody Dies, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Multi, Paranormal AU, Sad with a Happy Ending, Soulmate AU, Soulmates, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, ish, klance, shance, shklance - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-30
Updated: 2019-04-30
Packaged: 2020-02-10 07:22:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18655669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lemon_Boy_Kaden/pseuds/Lemon_Boy_Kaden
Summary: Two souls are supposed to be together forever. Both have already lived their lives but one is captured and sold by the beings that live between life and death. Sold to be companionship for a price that likely was not worth it. Money was rarely involved in these transactions because wealth didn't carry over. The sold soul forgets, and lives a new life alongside the one he was sold to. Or rather for. Neither are aware. But end up in a place that is between worlds as well, and meet the second soul once more and now the sold soul has to choose. He can drag his new friend to the afterlife, or stay in the body and lose the one he's known for centuries. Or he can abandon his new friend to rejoin his soulmate.





	Back To You

**Author's Note:**

> Written on mobile, sorry in advance for any spelling/grammatical errors, it's like 5am and I'm too lazy to edit

Soulmates sounds like a fairytale, some believe they exist, some do not. In reality it's less based on faith and fate and more based on your life. What you do, who you spend it with, etcetera. Soulmates are those who die having devoted their life to loving another sentient living creature, and in fact someone can have many soulmates. Pets are an example. It's rare for humans to have human soulmates, simply due to the lives many humans have. Infidelity is a common destroyer of potential soulmates. But as is a heart not easily or far too easily swayed to love. Really there is no telling whether your soulmate will be the one you loved in highschool and never forgot, or the one that you watched die and you withered away without. It's all about who your heart and mind died thinking of, who you wished to be with the most.  
But after death souls are free to roam the spirit world, a space that's relatively small for the souls, think like a house for the dearly departed. Every soul has their own "house" which also contains relics from life, and their soulmate(s) if they have one. Should they have a soulmate the space is also decorated with remnants of who they were while they lived. These spaces take on different forms depending on those who inhabit it. Some are beautiful gardens, some are sprawling plots of field, others have beaches, though most are homes. Dream homes that contain memories and comforting objects that surround the spirit for all eternity. The spirits do communicate with each other and occasionally can bridge their consciousness to the mortal world to speak with loved ones and curious adventurers, though these occurrences are rare. They require a lot of energy and a special place.  
However there are beings who consistently live in the gap between the mortal and spirit world. Beings neither confined to earth or the afterlife. These beings are sparse. They're called Hyges. These beings live only for themselves, and many steal and sell souls to the mortal world, forcing the already dead back into mortal bodies that were not meant to be their own, slaughtering the soul already set to said body. Never to be retrieved. Never to have their homes in the afterlife, never to have a soulmate. These souls are simply destroyed in their entirety. Left to dissolve without a body to host and nurture them.  
The souls are sold in return for an afterlife of slavery and pain. The Hyges don't deal in money, or anything humans find that have monetary value. They collect these souls and have them kill or retrieve other souls at the Hyges' whim. Usually parents, great grandparents and other family members are the ones who make these unethical purchases. For the sake of a guaranteed soulmate for a loved one. For guaranteed company. Many do this because they receive a fortune, a prophecy or a prediction. Someone down the road in their family will live a life alone and die that way, with nobody, and no means to continue the family tree. Causing their name and legacy to be lost to time, never to be discovered again.

Keith and Lance have known one another since they were ten. Lance having moved from Cuba, and Keith being the new kid after a particularly traumatic event followed by relocation. Neither spoke much, though it's not that Lance didn't try. Rather he was having trouble because his first language wasn't English. So for English class he disappeared to another room with some other teacher and about three other kids.  
Keith however? He just didn't have much to say. He was a quiet kid, and much of it resulted from the loss of his father. He'd never known his mother, and his father was a firefighter who had died on duty recently. So he lived with his closest relatives. His grandmother. She wasn't particularly kind. But she wasn't abusive either. Just.....abrasive. It wasn't easy losing your husband and son within a decade of each other, then having to house a child that looked like a carbon copy of both. They did their best.  
Lance and Keith didn't get along well at first, considering for about a month after meeting Lance thought Keith was a girl. He may have also introduced himself by pulling his hair. It wasn't a pretty start to their friendship. It took about a year for them to get along, and from there they were inseparable. Lance's accent faded from his voice, and Keith had actually started to break out of his shell. Through middle school Lance gained three more close friends and dragged Keith along with him, determined to make sure they stayed friends. They had many many disagreements but through it all they remained exceptionally close-knit.

"You two sure its smart to watch this kinda stuff at midnight?" Veronica called from Lance's doorway, smiling at him and Keith. They were sat on the bed, blanket wrapped around both of them, laptop screen illuminating their faces.  
"We're not scaredy cats like you and Rachel!" Lance retorted, crossing his arms as Keith nodded, smiling at him fondly. Veronica rolled her eyes and scoffed.  
"Remember when we watched Pet Semetary? You had that stupid nightmare for a week and slept in my room for a week and a half" she said, which got an immediate reaction from Lance. The younger sibling glared at her and threw his pillow, which she caught and lobbed back.  
"Shut up! Shouldn't you be texting your stupid boyfriend or something?" He called, face red, pout obvious. She laughed and waved him off.  
"Just saying, don't come crawling to me when you can't get to sleep," she said, walking away smugly. Lance got up and closed the door behind her with a groan.  
"She's the worst, sorry about that," he said to Keith, hopping back on the bed beside him.  
"Did Pet Semetary really scare you?" Keith asked teasingly, nudging his arm. Lance spluttered, stuttering a very overdramatic explanation, which really only made Keith trade more.  
"Whatever man, I was seven....should we watch the next one?" He asked, changing the subject. They had both compiled a list of ghost videos, and horror movies so they could pull an all-nighter for the first time, and because they had both recently discovered the world of the paranormal, and fell in love with it. They spent the night watching ghost hunting videos, and poked fun. All was well until they both passed out watching a video, sleeping beside one another, computer propped up on the night table, and legs tangled together.  
Keith woke up to Lance thrashing in his sleep, frowning and whining. He sat up after a moment when it didn't pass. It was getting worse. Keith frowned at his friend, who seemed to almost be in...pain? He was obviously distressed but it looked like whatever it was, was physically hurting him. He leaned over him to open the laptop, the blue screen light illuminating Lance's face, which was scrunched up.  
Mumblings of "no" and "stop" started coming from him, and tears even started streaming down his cheeks, soaking into the fabric of his pillow. Keith started gently shaking the other, trying to wake him with little success. Then it got weirder.  
"Shiro! No! Let me go!" He called, speech slurred. Keith froze and frowned. Who the hell was Shiro? Keith's gut twisted, and something felt seriously off. He started more frantically shaking Lance's shoulder, calling his name as his words got louder.  
"Lance!" Keith finally said, raising his voice over Lance's. The other shot up, screaming and panting hard, curling up and sobbing. Keith placed a hand on his shoulder and he flinched away, head snapping to look at him. He looked like he didn't recognize his best friend for several seconds. It was honestly kind of scaring Keith. He wasn't a very touchy person, but he figured Lance needed the comfort, so he pulled him into a hug, holding him close and rubbing the brunets back gently as he cried into his shoulder, hot tears soaking into his shirt.  
A loud knock sounded at the door before Rachel, and Veronica peering from behind her, as well as Lance's brother that still lived with them behind both of them appeared in the doorway. The light from the hall illuminated them and they looked concerned. They saw Lance sobbing into Keith's shoulder and frowned, Veronica pushing past Rachel and sitting on the edge of the bed, placing a hand on his back.  
"You had the dream again didn't you?" A nod came in response. "You know that you shouldn't be watching that stuff before bed, you know that this always happens Lance," she said, chastising him gently. He nodded and she patted his back, standing.  
"You two good if we go back to bed?" Keith nodded and Lance did too. The door clicked shut and Lance sat up, frowning, calming down.  
"Sorry..." He muttered, not meeting Keith's eyes.  
"It's fine man, you wanna watch that video Hunk showed us to take your mind off it?" Keith suggested, seeing just how embarrassed Lance was over the episode. The other nodded gratefully.  
They spent the next hour watching videos until they both finally grew tired and fell asleep again, leaning against one another.  
Keith, much to Lance's immense relief, never brought up the incident again, not even after one of their biggest fights. As they grew older Lance grew out of that issue, the nightmare banished to the pages of the dream log he kept under his bed for his psychologist. Keith did ask about Shiro though, too curious about who it was to let that detail slide. Lance explained to him that he had no clue, just a vaguely familiar face of someone he couldn't find anywhere. No celebrity, none of his friends or family in Cuba, not even anyone in old photo albums that dated back decades matched the face he saw in his dream. Nobody with the name either. The only result they got was a translation from Japanese to English that meant white, which baffled both of them. It was buried in their minds for years, and they were well into their junior year of highschool when it was brought back up.  
Keith's grandmother died, and in her will had left everything to Keith seeing as he was the only family she had left. Lance's family took him in, making the case that making him move schools so close to his graduation and ripping him from his friends was unfair. They sold the house, and much of her things, mostly so Keith could afford university as his grandmother had explained to them many times while she was in the hospital.  
It wasn't an easy time for Keith, but it was somehow easier than losing his dad. He'd had closure this time, and Lance's family, which was now down to just Lance and his twin sister Rachel. Everyone else had moved away, his brothers even having wives and children.  
While they were cleaning out the house and finding what was left to either put in a box or sell, Keith and Lance had found a box with some of his grandfathers things. An old tattered and yellowed leather back journal, along with some pictures, a wedding ring and a glass bottle with a mix of dried flowers and some grey looking powder. In the very bottom was another book, this one a notebook. They decided to bring it back home with them, and snoop through it in detail.   
They didn't get to it for a month, the first semester of finals swamping them in homework, essays, studying and tests. The two only got closer with time, Keith turning to Lance for comfort, and Lance turning to Keith for reassurance. They both needed one another more than they wanted to admit, and relied on each other for support where it was needed.

They did finally get to the journal, Lance finding it under Keith's bed when he was trying to look for his laptop with him. He pulled it out and held it up.  
"That's....not my laptop Lance," Keith said, snickering softly and snatching it from the other.  
"Yeah but it was behind the book," he replied, pulling out the laptop and putting it on the bed with a grin. "Told you so........ Isn't that the journal we found from your grandpa?"  
"Yeah. We never did read it...." he trailed off.  
"It's a tool for procrastination, open the goddamn book Keith," Lance said, smiling and settling behind him, looking over his shoulder.  
"Gee, it totally doesn't make sense why your grades are so low Lance," the other teased, nudging him.  
"Just read it!"  
"Calm down, give me a second....woah, this is old. The first page is from 1948." Keith said.  
"Well obviously Sherlock. He's your grandpa." Lance replied, staring at him like it should be obvious.  
"Shut up. Look, here" he said, pointing at a paragraph. "'I consulted the woman again. She told me of my children and grandchildren, though the future looks grim. She told me that my family was cursed to fall apart, my son was to die, and his child was to be alone'...blah blah blah...'a great mind to be wasted away without human companionship'..."  
"That's a coincidence, obviously. Besides, you aren't alone. You have friends, and my mom practically raised you man! It's all a bunch of baloney," Lance dismissed, laughing a bit. Keith grimaced and shrugged.  
"I mean you're right, but I mean, it's pretty freaky that it predicted my dad's death, come on you gotta admit it's weird as hell man," he replied. Lance yanked the book away, and flipped to a random page, before starting to read.  
"'...her name was Anne, I'm not sure how to feel about her. She's got a wicked temper, but she's definitely lively...unlike the other women I've courted she seems to be just as interested in pursuing me,' aww, it's you grandparents love story!" Lance said, smiling.  
"Of course you'd be more interested in a love story than my life's prophecy,"  
"You make it sound like you're some tragic hero from Shakespeare,"   
"Maybe I am," he said, laughing and grabbing the journal back. "Lets see, what about here...'the cost is heavy but I believe it will be worth it for my family. My son was born days ago, already fulfilling the witches words. I can't let them become truth, or the family will never survive. Anne has no clue what I'm doing. I've found the perfect spot, just south-east of the house, in the furthest corner of the cemetery is where they should meet. The forecast says the twenty fifth of April will be optimal...' what? Wait what am I missing here?" Keith laughed, showing the pages to Lance.  
"Maybe he was on drugs or in the mafia or something," he suggested with a shrug. Keith shrugged, closing the book, frowning.  
"Whatever it was its over now so," he said, chucking the book onto his bed with a sigh.  
"So are you going to that dance coming up in a month?"  
"No, of course not. Nobody to go with," he said shrugging.  
"I heard that girl that has the hots for you hasn't been asked yet. Ask her," Lance suggested, plopping himself down on Keith's bed, looking down at him.  
"Lance dances are your thing, not mine, besides I'm not that interested in dating any girls right now," he replied, face blank, voice monotone.   
"Yeah I know, but it'd be fun to have you there. C'mon mullet, lighten up, give it a shot man," The other said, moving so he was now hanging upside down from his bed, smiling at him. Keith rolled his eyes and snorted, prodding his shoulder with his foot and promptly making Lance fall from the bed with a soft thud.  
"Will you stop with that stupid nickname? It's not a mullet,"  
"Oh but it is my dear hairstyle challenged friend. Short in the front, long in the back,"  
"Yeah but mullets are way shorter,"  
"And somehow you neglect k-pop yet again. Tragic," Lance laughed, still not having moved from his spot on the ground.  
"I'll make you a deal. Stop calling me mullet and I'll go to the stupid dance with that girl," Keith said, containing his eye rolling.  
"Deal."

Keith knew this would be stupid. Here he was, having spent an hour with Lance getting ready, and picking up the girl he'd asked to the dance. Well really he'd only said like two words to her when she said yes. It was....odd to say the least. Surprisingly Lance was the one without a date, instead going with Keith, Hunk, Pidge, and Allura as friends instead of picking up a girl. It was unusual for him but he seemed to be happy with the decision.  
Though it had all gone south when Keith's date tried to kiss him and he blurted out "I like boys," in response. He then proceeded to hightail it out of there, and hide in the men's bathroom. Lance had seen the whole event transpire but the loud blaring of Wonderwall over the shitty gym speakers made it impossible to tell what was being said. All he knew was Keith looked embarrassed, and his date looked shocked and pissed. He grimaced and turned to Hunk, excusing himself to do damage control, and rushing after Keith. He found him in the boys bathroom, looking thoroughly distraught as he stared at the sink.  
"What happened? I don't know how you did it but your date looks pissed man," he spoke up, leaning against the bathroom wall.  
"I fucked up," Keith groaned.  
"Yeah I can tell, care to elaborate?" Lance replied, eyebrow raised.  
"I told her I was gay."  
".....yeah that'd do it," he answered, nodding. It explained a lot as to why she looked so pissed.  
"No kidding," Keith muttered.  
"Are you?" He got a hesitant nod in response. "How long have you known?"  
"Anywhere from five minutes to seventeen years, man I don't know. All I know is that she wanted to kiss me and I panicked and ran." He sighed, crossing his arms. "She seems perfectly nice, but I just...couldn't."  
"That's fine man, probably should've been a bit more graceful with your departure but I mean....it worked I guess," Lance laughed, smiling crookedly at him.  
"Fair point."  
"Come on, there's still songs to dance to, and bad party food to eat" He said, grabbing Keith's wrist and pulling him out of the bathroom, smiling at him. Keith felt his heart flutter as he smiled back at Lance, laughing as he let himself be dragged away.  
The next days yielded some unpleasant responses. Keith tried to apologize, being shut down by his dates angry friends. Then a day later word floated around the school that Keith was gay. And of course it became a big deal. It was a small and very traditional town. Keith was the only one in school who was out. So he was made into an example. It was constant. Mocking questions from fellow students about his sexuality, undisguised disgust whenever he went into the gym lockers, and the prodding about why he was gay. He ended up getting into a fight about it after school one day, his temper he'd inherited from his grandmother rearing its head. He came home with a black eye and bloody nose, and Lance had been the one to patch him up. Keith could see the anger in Lance's face as he listened, but Lance was much better about controlling his temper.  
It only got worse as they approached the end of the year, the mocking increasing. Now the second he walked into the locker room he got jeers and glares. Everyone stopped changing and blatantly whispered and covered themselves entirely until he gave in and slipped into a bathroom stall to change. During gym the rest of the class would make comment after comment, the teacher ignoring it. Even when Lance finally convinced Keith to talk to him the teacher just waved it away, telling him it was just boys being boys.  
Though it all boiled over a week before their final exams. He had been walking with Lance through the halls between classes and stopped, the condescending questions being thrown at him. He clenched his hand into a fist and took a breath, going to move past them and forget about it when Lance spoke up.  
"The hell is your problem? Why do you care so much? You wanna get into his pants or something?" He said. Lance had always had a big mouth, known for never having a verbal filter.  
"Fuck off, what are you? His boyfriend?" One of them sneered, glaring at Lance. He was quick to grab Keith's hand, holding it.  
"Yeah, now get out of our way, we have class." He said simply, walking past them and pulling a disbelieving Keith behind him.  
"Why did you do that?" Keith asked once they were out of earshot, not letting go of Lance's hand.  
"They keep fucking with you, and I'm not gonna let you deal with that shit alone," he shrugged, looking at Keith.  
"This'll only make them do the same thing to you though,"  
"Yeah but it'll taken some heat off of your back,"   
"....Thanks man," Keith replied after a pause, giving him a genuine smile. "Guess we're in it together now,"  
"Always are, now get to class or my mom'll be on both of us," Lance laughed, smiling at him as he gave him a gentle push.  
The other students didn't relent at all. If anything it just resurged, but it was easier to deal with when they had each other. Their friends were also great, and weren't afraid to help them out. Pidge especially. She might've been small but she was intimidating. It got easier once exams rolled around, since nobody had enough energy to care anymore. Alongside all that it became a regular sight to see Keith and Lance holding hands in the hallways, smiling and laughing as they talked together. It felt natural to them. After being inseparable for so long it felt like the next step. They even ended up going to junior prom together, showing up hand-in-hand, and for one night they were left alone. They were just like every other kid there. It was refreshing. They had danced together, laughing and stopping to hang with their friends occasionally but still attached at the hip.  
It wasn't exactly surprising when Lance came out for real, telling Keith and the rest of their friends. From there it was about a week until he asked Keith out, and from then they were the golden couple at school. There was such an ease between them, like they fit together perfectly. Their dynamic was enviable, and the beginning of senior year only brought that forward. Eventually the shock faded for most of the student body, of course some teachers and students were assholes, but they were a small group. It was bearable. Senior year flew by, and before they knew it they were accepted to the university of their choice. It was a school in a small university town, it was an old town too. The business there largely revolved around how old everything was and the vaguely paranormal feeling to the area. They toured the place and found a small, shitty but most importantly cheap apartment just off campus. They were set for when the time came to move out. Lance's mom was not. She spent the entirety of their second semester going through photo albums, listening to old songs they had all once enjoyed, and watching home videos. She wasn't ready for her last two kids to leave home, and honestly Keith had become family too at that point.  
The day they moved was emotional to say the least. Lance's mom helped them move in, and made sure that she had made enough food to fill their freezer. It was her way of making sure they were taken care of and honestly they were grateful for it during the first week of actually living in the apartment.  
They were both exceptionally homesick, but it slowly faded. They had each other after all, as long as they had that they'd be fine right? Well sort of. Lance's nightmares returned, more vivid than ever, and with no prompting. He woke up screaming so often that they'd had to apologize to the neighbours and Lance now slept with a pillow in his arms so he could scream into it. Keith was getting worried, especially when Lance started getting scared to sleep. He'd avoid it at any cost, but it was always inevitable. They saw a doctor on campus, and Lance was referred to a therapist which worked somewhat, but he still had the dream at least once a week. It was always the same and it kept getting more and more realistic with time. The once vaguely familiar face became one full of detail and Lance was convinced he could pick him out in a crowd no problem. More foggy memories surfaced and it was hard on them both.  
It was harder and harder for Keith to listen to Lance be in pain and calling for someone that wasn't him. He knew it was stupid. He knew it was ludicrous to be jealous of someone Lance didn't even know. But he was. Even a year into university it didn't stop. Lance got a job at a museum nearby and it eased the dreams but the memories only came faster. Though he never told Keith about it.  
The stress weighed heavy on them and Lance decided they needed a break. So on Halloween that year he suggested they go to a museum a bit further away. The museum was open until midnight for Halloween and the majority of it was completely dark to add to the creep factor. The exhibits were made about ghosts, and whatever paranormal cash in they could write about. It was right up their alley.  
Keith expressed concern that it would bring the dream back full force but Lance argued back saying it couldn't get much worse and it'd be good for them. So they went. By the time they got there it was mostly empty, the high school students that went had left, and the only ones left were university students wandering around and tired staff.  
They looked at exhibit after exhibit and after trying to watch one of the many informational videos before realizing they were all broken they found themselves in the basement.  
"Is it me or does this feel....different?" Lance asked. "Something feels off,"  
"Yeah, but I don't know why," Keith replied, looking around the area. He could hardly see a thing, so he pulled out his phone and turned on the flashlight. It felt like they were being watched. He shined the light around, finding nothing as they kept on. Lance lead them around the basement, like he had a specific place in mind. He lead Keith to a room, his face screwed up in confusion. As soon as they stepped into the room the feeling increased tenfold. Then Keith's phone turned off.  
"Why did you turn off the light?" Lance asked, sounding jittery.  
"I didn't, I think my phone died. But it was at fifty percent," he replied, trying to turn his phone back on. It didn't work but there was a sudden light from behind him. He assumed it was Lance's phone until he saw Lance beside him, looking pale as all hell.  
"Lance!" A voice sounded behind them. Both boys twirled around to face the voice, and light flooded the room, almost too bright. A man that Keith didn't know was standing in front of him. He was clearly a few years older than them, a prominent scar carved over the bridge of his nose, and snowy hair that somehow didn't make him look older. Keith was startled by him, his gut telling him not to trust him. He hadn't seen the man when they came in, and he hadn't walked in after them. He turned to his boyfriend only to see that Lance's face had gone slack as he stared at the man, looking dazed. He stumbled and the man with the white hair rushed forward to catch him, but Keith beat him to the punch. He held Lance to his chest, glaring at the other, the man taking a step back, hands raised.  
"Stay the fuck away from us," Keith growled, shifting so he was covering Lance's body with his own, protecting him.  
"Shiro?" Lance's voice was small as he gently slipped from Keith's grip. Keith frowned, the name sounding familiar as his friend and now lover walked towards the man. Tears welled in Lance's eyes as he reached towards the other man.  
"I'm right here baby," Shiro reassured, giving Keith a brief glance before giving in and hugging Lance tightly.  
"I...I never thought I'd...they took me to..." Lance struggled, clinging to Shiro, much to Keith's disbelief. "I'm so....I should've tried harder I-"  
"Hey, hey, none of that sweetheart, you didn't do anything wrong. It wasn't your fault," Shiro said firmly, taking Lance's face in his hand, and tilting it up, making him look up at himself.  
"Someone wanna tell me what the fuck is going on?" Keith asked, seeing the kiss coming and jealousy erupting in his heart. He was clenching tightly at his jacket, glaring at Shiro. Lance reluctantly stepped away from the man, walking back to his current boyfriend and placing a hand on his cheek. Tears rolled over his cheeks and Keith wanted nothing more than to pull Lance into his arms and whisk him away, back home to their little apartment. To forget whatever the hell was happening here and make sure the man knew that Lance was taken. That he belonged to Lance and Lance to him.  
"God there's so much to tell you," the brunet sighed, smiling sadly at Keith. He took a breath and picked up his boyfriends hand in his other and started explaining. He told him everything. No detail spared.  
He told Keith of how he'd lived before, long ago before a relationship like theirs was accepted as widely as it was. How he'd met Shiro in a church of all places. How they fell in love, ran away, and how they lived in solitary, a small farm sustaining them and keeping the lights on. How the Second World War swept them up, and separated them. How they had to pretend to be someone they weren't and their tearful reunion. How their young lives were cut tragically short, and how they died holding onto one another.  
Keith had started crying at some point, he couldn't remember when. But Lance kept talking, the memories rushing out of his mouth, eager to explain to his lover after missing such a crucial part of his existence for so goddamn long.  
He told him of their afterlife together, a small beachside home with water just meters from the door. The serenity of it. How he was ripped from it, painfully and tragically. How his nightmares were just fragments of that horrific experience. Keith's heart kept shattering with each word, the realization hanging heavy on him. He sobbed into Lance's shoulder, knowing that he was about to lose the love of his life. The one he cared for more than anyone else. He would be gone. He never really was meant for him. He belonged with another.  
"My grandfather," Keith said after calming down. "That's....that had to be what he was talking about," he said, voice breaking. Lance nodded sadly, tears welling up in his eyes again. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," Keith said softly, head hanging low.  
"Keith you weren't the one to do this, you didn't know," Lance reassured. "Besides, as horrible as it is, I'm glad I know you, I'm glad to have been a part of your life, even if I wasn't meant to be here,"  
Keith clung to Lance desperately, not wanting to lose him, the only person he had left. His family was gone, he couldn't lose Lance too. Not after all this. Lance held onto him tightly, tears streaming down his own face.  
"I have to choose," he said softly, looking at Keith. "I can go back or I can stay, but if I stay I never get to see him again," he explained. "Do you understand?"  
"Go," Keith croaked hoarsely, looking up and smiling sadly at him. "You have an afterlife to go back to," he said, sniffing and wiping at his eyes with his sleeve.  
"...I love you," Lance said softly, pressing against him with a sigh.  
"I love you too," Keith answered, pulling the other into a gentle kiss, savouring the moment. He knew that Lance would leave. Hell, if he had been in his situation he probably would've as well. It was hard not to. An eternity with your soulmate on the beach, in a perfect little house? That sounded like everything he had ever wanted for him and Lance. Lance had a chance at having that, and who was Keith to stop him?  
The goodbye was hard. But Keith left the museum beside Lance, though it wasn't really him anymore. He was pronounced dead at the scene. They said it was from an underlying heart issue nobody had found. The call to his mom was the worst thing about it all. That is until Keith had to go home. To an empty apartment. No more cheerful greeting, no more comments on his hair. Nothing.  
As months went on it never got easier. Keith couldn't pull himself together enough to try an date again. He was successful sure, but he was all alone. The very thing his grandfather had tried to prevent was how he ended up. His house was small and sparse. He'd gotten a dog but he was no substitute for a human companion.  
More despair followed in the years after, Lance's parents passing away within a decade. Keith's life had turned dull and mundane, and not in the way he'd wanted. No picket fence. No husband to wake up to. None of that.

He had been distracted. A dangerous thing in his line of work. It was quick though. A mercy considering how painful it would have been had he lived to see what happened after that. All he knew was he was falling backwards and there was a sudden jolt of pain before he appeared on a sandy beach. Water lapped at his ankles and he looked at his hands. They didn't have tough callouses anymore. He felt his face and hair, surprised to find that they felt like when he was younger. His hair was shorter, his face no longer having dry and rough skin. He looked around in confusion, finding himself staring at a small picturesque blue house. He cautiously walked up to the door, frowning when his feet didn't feel wet once he stepped onto the porch. He knocked and waited, still confused until the door opened.  
Lance's face appeared and lit up at the sight of him, and he quickly flung himself at the confused man.  
"Keith! You're here!" He said excitedly as Keith grinned and held him close, smiling.  
"What's going on?" Another voice chimed in. He looked up from Lance's shoulder to see Shiro, who smiled fondly when he saw Lance hugging him. "I told you he'd be here," Shiro said, directing his words at Lance.  
"Shut up Kashi, let me have this," The other replied, pulling away and yanking Keith's arm so he followed them into the house.  
"I missed you," Keith said softly, pulling Lance into yet another hug, kissing his cheek.  
"I missed you too," he replied, kissing his nose softly. Keith glanced at Shiro warily, feeling like there was lines he had crossed.  
"Lance has told me a lot about you. It's nice to see you again," he said, combing his white hair out of his face with a smile.   
Lance smiled and rested his head on Keith's chest. "Welcome home Mullet,"


End file.
